In a recent article in The Guardian, singer Lana Del Rey was quoted saying that she wished she was already dead. This statement came after listing both Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain as personal heroes (both singers’ lives were ended at the age of 27). Apparently, premature death can be seen as glamourous.

The article goes on with Del Rey continuing to give vague and dark answers to most questions. She states that she has not enjoyed her career that has made her a critic’s target for backlash. When asked how long she did get to enjoy herself, she simply answered, “I never felt any of the enjoyment. It was all bad, all of it.”

After the article’s publication, the internet was quick to respond to Del Rey’s remarks. The most impactful of which came from Kurt Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, who took to Twitter. The first few tweets have since been deleted, but no one can escape the power of a screenshot. Cobain tweeted a series about never having the chance to know her own father because he died so young. She says, “The death of young musicians isn’t something to romanticize… and it becomes a desirable feat because people like you think it’s ‘cool.’ …Embrace life, because you only get one life. The people you mentioned wasted that life.”

Lana Del Rey defended herself in more deleted tweets, saying she wished she hadn’t trusted The Guardian and that the questions were clearly calculated for desired answers. She said her interviewer was “masked as a fan, but was hiding sinister ambitions and angles.”

Though Cobain has deleted her first few tweets, she has kept this last one, expressing that she does not mean to attack anyone. “I have no animosity towards Lana, I was just trying to put things in perspective from personal experience.” Del Rey responded, saying, “It’s all good. [The Guardian] was asking me a lot [about] your dad I said I liked him because he was talented not because he died young – the other half of what I said wasn’t really related to the people he mentioned/ I don’t find that part of music glam either.”

Whoever is at fault here, there are some clear takeaways. First and foremost, life is precious. It is not something to be squandered because it is literally everything we have! Yes, of course, death is inevitable, but all the more to enjoy what we have. Suicide will always be a permanent solution to temporary circumstances. You will always have the chance to change, grow, and learn. Even the darkest of situations can make you stronger — if you let it — and can help you appreciate the better things when you find them. And you will.

This whole exchange also shows us how powerful words can be. It was Del Rey’s words that upset numerous fans and people who have lived through the death of a loved one. It was Cobain’s words that put things into perspective. And it was even Tim Jonze from The Guardian whose words gained the trust and allegedly asked leading questions of Del Rey. It is important to realize that what we say can be taken very seriously, so we should make sure that what we say is honest and uplifting. That’s not to say that you should never express negativity — because that’s a part of life — but we should try to be more constructive and more encouraging.

All of us have and will go through some hard things in our lives. The least we can do is show some compassion toward one another.